PESHAWAR: The Peshawar High Court on Tuesday issued a stay order temporarily stopping the federal government from withdrawing around Rs50 million funding for development schemes in a Peshawar National Assembly constituency.

A bench consisting of Justice Roohul Amin Khan and Justice Shahid Khan issued notices to the secretaries of the cabinet and planning and development divisions seeking their response to a petition of Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf MNA Arbab Amir Ayub from Peshawar city against the “federal government’s decision to remit funds meant for development of his constituency under the Sustainable Achievement Programme Funds (SAP) to the Pak-PWD.”

The petitioner challenged the July 26 decision of the federal government’s Steering Committee on Sustainable Development Goals to approve the recommendations of its sub-committee for the return of the unutilised SAP to the Pak-PWD for its distribution to other development schemes.

He requested the court to declare those recommendations and their approval ‘illegal and based on ulterior motives’.

Seeks federal govt’s reply to PTI MNA’s plea on matter

Advocate Khalid Rehman appeared for the petitioner and said that his client was elected MNA from the NA-28 Peshawar constituency.

He said that under the PM Imran Khan-led last PTI government in the centre, the steering committee on SDGs had allocated funds for various developmental schemes in various districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa of the SAP Funds.

The lawyer said that Rs478.61 million funds were earmarked for the purpose.

“For development schemes in the NA-28 constituency, Rs350 million was appropriated and initially, Rs300 million funding was released,” he said, adding that as the codal formalities were fulfilled, tenders were formally invited through newspapers.

Mr Rehman said that the Chamkani tehsil municipal administration, the executing agency, issued a public notice to invite bids for the development schemes, while work orders were issued to successful bidders on May 30, 2022.

He said that the deputy commissioner of Peshawar district, being the chairman of the district development committee, requested the deputy director of the Sustainable Development Unit at the provincial planning and development department through a letter on June 13, 2022, to release the requisite remaining funds amounting to Rs49.60 million for executing the remaining development schemes.

The counsel said that after the ouster of the PTI government in the centre, its successor changed its earlier decision ‘out of pure mala fide’ and the federal government’s steering committee assigned the task of revision of the earlier decisions.

He added that the sub-committee made various recommendations regarding the SAP Funds and the steering committing approved those recommendations.

Mr Rehman claimed that it was decided to return the SAP funds to the Pak-PWD for its distribution and release to other schemes rather than utilise the same on already assigned ones.

He argued that once the developmental work on the said schemes was initiated after proper approval of the competent forum and most of the work had already been completed, so withholding of the funds didn’t have any justification and was unlawful.

Published in Dawn, August 31st, 2022